


Unexpected Miracle

by PaulineRabbMackenzie



Series: Birthday Stories [1]
Category: JAG (TV 1995)
Genre: Adoption, F/M, Labour TW, Open Adoption, Pregnancy tw, hospital tw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25936282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaulineRabbMackenzie/pseuds/PaulineRabbMackenzie
Summary: Birthday Present for my friend Molly.This is the first instalment in a 6 day, 6 part series for her that takes place in the same universe.Happy Birthday!!!Premise, Harm and Mac go into an open adoption when a widowed pettiofficer wants to give up her baby for adoption so she doesn't have to give up her career.
Relationships: Sarah MacKenzie/Harmon Rabb Jr.
Series: Birthday Stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1882312
Kudos: 4





	Unexpected Miracle

“What’s that?” Mac asked, looking at the half constructed mobile.  
“It’s a Charm Mobile,” she said. “It’s for babies…to bring good luck and surround them with love. I want everybody who’s in her life to put something on it. I thought you guys could and your friends at JAG…”  
“That sounds great,” said Mac. “I know the perfect thing, a locket, it belonged to my grandmother. Why don’t you two got hung it up in the nursery and I’ll go grab it.”  
“Here,” Harm said, taking off his dad’s MIA bracelet. “I want this to be on the mobile, so she always knows her grandpa would have loved her.”  
Isabelle’s eyes darkened.  
“That’s an MIA bracelet,” she said.  
“Yeah,” Harm said. “My dad was shot down over Russia when I was 5…I’be never stopped looking for him though…”  
“Your dad was…?” Isabelle asked.  
“He was a fighter pilot, like me. A Blue Angel,” Harm said proudly.  
“But you’re retired now, right…” Isabelle said, getting upset. “Your eye thing?”  
“That was fixed a few years ago,” Harm said. “I keep my carrier quals up, even though I’m at JAG now.”  
Isabelle just nodded, viably uncomfortable.  
“Hey, are you okay?” asked Harm. “Can I get you something to drink or do you need to sit down?”  
“No, I’m fine,” Isabelle said. She paused. “No, actually, some water would be great.”  
Isabelle sat down, shaking. She couldn’t go through this, not again, and she could let her babies go through what she and Harm had been through.

The mood at dinner was tense. There wasn’t anything to actually indicate something was wrong, but Mac could feel it.  
Isabelle picked at her greenbeans, pushing them back and forth on her plate without really eating them.  
“Isabelle, what’s wrong?” Mac asked.  
Isabelle paused, Mac could feel the words trapped on her mouth like surface tension.  
Mac looked at, nervous for a minute.  
“I’m sorry,” Isabelle finally burst out. “I just don’t think this is going to work out.”  
“What?” Mac was taken aback.  
Isabelle took a deep breath and started talking again.  
“I’ve decided to go with the other couple…” she started.  
“What?” Mac said. “I thought we were a sure thing…I thought you’d decided on us…weeks ago…”  
Ma c was so confused, she had to go on.  
“But they want a closed adoption, you’ll never see your baby?” Mac started. “You wanted your baby to know you, and we wanted you to be in our lives…”  
Isabelle’s lower lip wobbled.  
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just can’t do this…”  
She pushed back from the table, clumsily, catching the table clothe as she stood.  
She grabbed her jacket off her chair, putting it on as she stumbled out of the restaurant, unsteady on heels she probably shouldn’t have still been wearing.  
They ran after her into light snowfall, but she was gone.  
Harm and Mac looked eachother, snowflakes catching in Mac;s eyelashes, not sure what to do.

The ride home from the restaurant was quiet and tense. No one said anything until they were home and in the parlour when Harm tried to break the awkward silence.  
Mac took her coat off and started to hang it up.  
“Mac…” he started.  
But Mac wasn’t listening. She awkwardly hung up her keys, taking several attempts to hook her keys on the hook before succeeding.  
“Mac…Mac!” he tried to get through to her.  
Mac wasn’t listening. She stormed up the stairs to the nursery.

“We should get rid of all this stuff,” Mac said, breezing into the nursery.  
“Mac…” Harm started, again following her in.  
“Bud and Harriet said the children’s hospital took all their stuff when they lost baby Sarah, I’m sure they use all this stuff.”  
“Mac…”  
She opened the cabinet and started throwing onesies out of it and onto the floor.  
“Mac…just because this adoption fell through, doesn’t mean that another one won’t work for us.”  
“Harm,” Mac started. “We’re both active duty military. There’s no way anyone’s gonna give us their baby when it might work out like it did for you and your dad, or worse, me and mine.”  
Mac grabbed the ladybug onesie and stopped, paused looking at it.  
She pressed it to her face and teared up.  
“What’re we gonna do, Harm?”  
Harm came put her and wrapped his arms around her, and she squeezed him, pressing her face into his chest and not caring that got makeup over his shirt. her  
A few minutes later, Mac’s cellphone rang.  
They both looked down at it.  
Isabelle, the caller ID read.  
Mac looked up at the ceiling, exasperated.  
“You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to,” Harm said.  
“No, I need to,” Mac said.  
She detached herself form Harm’s arms and walked to the nursery doorway, rising the phone to her ear.  
She didn’t even get the chance to say hello, when the frantic pregnant girl on the other end of the line started crying.  
“I didn’t know where to go after the dinner,” she said. “I walked for hours, I don't know where I am, I’m cold, and it’s snowing.”  
“Woah, woah, woah, slow down,” Mac said, lowering her other hand as if the girl on the other end of the line could see.  
“Mac,” she said. “I’m alone, and it’s snowing and I think I just went into labour…”  
Harm had picked up on her tone and was already by her side.  
“Mac, what’s wrong?” he said in a hushed voice.  
“Where are you?” Mac asked.  
“I don’t know,” she sobbed, I think I’m on the Capitol Mall, but there’s snow everywhere and I can’t see.  
“Drop a pin on your location, send me the screenshot, we’ll be right there to get you,” Mac said.  
Mac’s phone buzzed and she checked it, recognising the location on the map.  
“Stay right where you are,” Mac said into the phone, “We’re about 15 minutes away from you.”  
Harm looked to Mac for an explanation.  
“She’s in Labour and she’s alone,” Mac said.  
She grabbed her coat out of the closet and her keys off the hook.  
“We’re going to go get her.”  
“Of course,” Harm saidm grabbing his own coat. “I wonder if her new adoptive parents would be willing to go get her…” Harm finished, muttering under his breath.  
I know,” Mac said. “But I can’t leave her.”  
“I know,” Harm said. “Me, neither.”

They found her, sitting on a cold metal bench, snow collecting on her cheap, polyester jacket.  
“Isabelle!” Mac called, jumping out of the door of her car, running up to her and helping her into the backseat.  
“I’m sorry,” she stumbled as they made their way towards the car. “I just didn’t know who else to call.”  
“It’s okay,” Mac said. “Just concentrate getting warm, we’ll get you to a hospital.”  
“Can U go to the one you were talking about?” she asked.  
“Of course,” Mac said.  
“Dr. Rosalyn’ll fix you right up,” Harm said.  
be 

The lights flickered again, and went out, for real this time.  
Harm and Mac stared at each other in the dark for a minute, waiting for a doctor or nurse or something to show up, until Mac motivated to do something.  
“I’m gonna go check on the power,” Mac said. “Maybe find a doctor.”  
Isabelle waited till Mac had left earshot to grab Harm’s hand.  
“I need to tell you something,” she said. “But you need to promise not to tell her.”  
She didn’t wait for an answer from Harm, though, until she started talking.  
“It was lie,” she cried, obviously in pain. “I don’t love that you two aren’t together, but anybody can see that you two are destined to be together, particularly with the baby, it’ll happen eventually.”  
“Then what is it?” Harm asked.  
“It’s about my dad,” she cried. “I thought I was okay with it, really I was. Hell, you two being int he military was a perk for me, but then I heard about our dad and I just…can’t let my baby lose her dad the way I lost mine. My life fell apart when I was orphaned, I wouldn’t be in this situation if I had my parents and I can’t, not after what happened with Brian…with all three of us in the military…even though I love you guys, I can’t.”  
“Why didn’t you just tell her that?” Harm asked.  
“Cuz I don’t want her to blame herself, and I din’t want her to blame her job,” she said.  
“It’s great that you’re trying to do that for her,” Harm said. “But guess what? she’s already claiming herself and wracking her brain to think of what she did wrong to lose your trust and this baby. And she’s not just blaming her job, she’s bailing every aspect of herself, thinking she’s unfit to raise a daughter.”  
“I’m sorry,” she said.  
“You should try to talk to Mac,” Harm said.  
“I will,” she said.  
Mac came back into the room.  
“There’s no available doctors,” she said. “The power is out for the entire building—the entire neighbourhood. There is a generator, but it’s reserved for the critical floors and patients, they need to conserve it, and that’s unfortunately not us.”  
Mac looked to Isabelle.  
“Have you called the adoptive parents?” Mac asked.  
“No,” Isabelle said. “They’re still in St. Louis. They won’t come.”  
“I’m sure they’ll come,” said Mac, putting her hand on Isabelle’s hand and squeezing it reassuringly. “I’d come for my new adopted little girl…”  
“I’m gonna go see if I can get us some snacks or something at the vending machine,” Harm said, getting up and heading for the hallway. Mac started to stand up to follow him, but Isabelle grabbed her hand and stopped her.  
“Mac,” she started. “I need to talk to you.”  
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Harm said, getting up and heading to the hallway.

“So you can see,” Isabelle said. “It’s not you, it is your job, just a little bit, but ultimately it’s me. I love you guys, you are my first choice, but I just can’t risk that she’ll lose one or both of you, or worse, like I did, lose one of you and have one of you not be capable of being the parent she needs anymore.”  
Harm came back into the room.  
“Just how long were you out there, listening?” Mac asked, teasingly.  
“Not long,” Harm said. “I just didn’t want to interrupt you two, it sounded like the discussion was pretty important.”

“I don’t feel very well,” she said.  
Mac leaned forward to look her over in the dim light.  
She pressed the back of her fingers to her cheek. It was cold and clammy.  
“No, you don’t,” she said. She pulled away from her and stood up hastily.  
She stormed out of the room.  
From where they sat in the maternity suite, they could both hear Mac, full mama bear mode, having at the maternity staff.  
“I’m sorry,” the orderly said. “We only have the doctor for the most serious cases and she’s not one.”  
“Listen,” Mac said. “I’m telling you, she’s clammy and woozy and that’s nor normal. She might be going into shock, something’s wrong. I’m a lawyer, and you’re putting two of your patients at extreme risk right now, if you don’t send a doctor in, I promise you, I will have this entire hospital closed down.”  
“Fine,” they heard the orderly huff.  
They then heard the intercom.  
“Dr. Bernelli, please report to patient room 348,” it said as Mac came back into the room.  
“The doctor will be in in a minute,” she said. “How you doing?”  
“About the same,” Isabelle said.  
A doctor came in, checked Isabelle’s vitals.  
“How long has she been like this?” she asked urgently.  
“Only about 15 minutes,” Mac said.  
“About an hour,” Isabelle corrected.  
“An hour?” asked Mac. “Why didn’t you tell us?”  
“Didn’t think it was a big deal,” she croaked.  
The doctor shined a light in each of her eyes.  
“This baby needs to come out, now ,” she said. She talked into her badge. “I need an emergency OR prepped for an emergency C-section.”  
“What?” Isabelle said.  
“It’s gonna be okay, sweetie,” said the doctor.  
She turned to Harm and Mac.  
“Are you the parents?” she asked.  
“They’re the adoptive parents of my bab-,” she cut herself off as she realised.  
“I’m scared,” Isabelle said.  
“It’s gonna be okay,” Mac said, squeezing her shoulder.  
She continued to reassuringly rub her shoulder.  
“It’s gonna be okay…you’re okay…”  
The orderlies came to wheel her away to surgery. They tried to stop Harm and Mac from following, but Isabelle stopped them.  
“Please, I want them to go,” she said.  
As they wheeled her bed down the hallway, she grabbed Mac’s hand. Harm and Mac both leaned close to listen as effectively as they could as they walked.  
“I want you two to be the parents of my baby,” she said.  
They glanced to each other, not knowing how to react. Knowing overt joy would not be appropriate here, plus they were worried about Isabelle.  
“But I signed papers,” she said. “I don’t think I can get out of it.”  
She squeezed her eyes shut and looked pained.  
“I don’t know what to do…” she lamented.  
“Don’t worry about that right now,” Mac said, reaching down and squeezing her shoulder. “Just focus on being okay, right now. Okay?”  
And with that, she was wheeled into the OR, leaving Harm and Mac waiting there.

Almost 1 1/2 tense hours later, Dr. Bernelli came out of the OR, a little bit of blood on her pink scrubs, which let them know she was a maternity surgeon.  
They watched her with baited breath, unable to read her expression, until she smiled exasperatedly.  
“Someone should have told us it was twins,” she chided. “I could’ve killed them both…” she paused. “All three of them…”  
Harm and Mac looked at each, confused.  
“Twins?” they echoed in unison.  
“Yeah,” she said. “Twin baby girls. Either you or her should have told us.”  
“We didn’t know…” Harm said. “She didn’t know.”  
“Well, the doctor said. “Sometimes when the mother doesn’t want baby or the parents want to be surprised, they ask not be let know about the stuff like that, but it should have sent over in the file… I guess with the storm we didn’t get that. What a one in a million shot…”  
The doctor trailed off, but Harm and Mac weren’t listening. they were grinning. Now that they knew Isabelle and the baby—Well, babies, were okay, they could finally absorb what Isabelle had said. That she might want to give them her baby. The didn’t know how it would work out or if they actually would get the babies, but Isabelle was okay and the babies were healthy, now was a time for joy, regardless.  
“You can go in to see her in a few minutes,” Dr. Bernelli said.  
Harm and Mac looked at each other, concerned.  
“It’s nothing wrong,” Dr. Bernelli said. “We were finally able to get through to the parents on the phone, you can see her as soono as she’s done.”

A nurse came out and waved over to Harm and Mac.  
“You can go see her now,” she said.  
They walked into the room to find Isabelle, holding both babies.  
“I just got off the phone with the parents in St. Louis,” she said, a catch of tears at the edge of her voice.  
Mac immediately rushed to her side, squeezing her shoulder and comforting her, she cupped one of the babies’ head in her hand.  
“It’s okay,” she said. “What is it?”  
“They don’t want the babies,” she said.  
“what?” Mac asked, taken aback.  
“They found out they were twins and they don’t want them…” she looked at them sadly. “How could they not want them just cuz there was an extra?…little babies…”  
“I wanted you two to have them, it just makes me sad that their first thing they do is someone rejecting them,” she sniffled.  
“Does that mean?” Harm asked.  
She nodded through her tears.  
“Yeah,” she said. “You got the babies…”  
Harm and Mac both smiled and looked at each other, then looked at Isabelle and embraced her as the snow fell outside, a happy little family of five.


End file.
